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Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Old Glory banned at presidential debate

Posted: October 9, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Les Kinsolving

© 2007 

Baltimore is renowned for "The Star Spangled Banner," written by Francis Scott Key when, on a British prison ship, he saw Old Glory still flying above Fort McHenry after several hours of enormously heavy enemy bombardment.

But that origin of our national anthem was then.

Now, recently at Maryland's Morgan State University in Baltimore, which hosted Republican candidates for president of the United States – at what was titled the "All-American Presidential Forum" – the national flag of America was absent, having been prohibited by that incredible university's authorities.

When the tax-exempt and tax-support Public Broadcasting System televised this event, the backdrop was a map of the United States, superimposed with a checkerboard of multicultural faces.

Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, one of the presidential hopefuls, asked debate organizers to get Old Glory up there, too, according to Chris Cavey, first vice-chairman of the Maryland GOP. Cavey was acting as an escort for another candidate, Tom Tancredo of Colorado, and heard Hunter's request over his earpiece about half an hour before the show began.

"Escorts were wired. I heard (in the earpiece), 'Congressman Hunter is requesting a flag onstage,'" Cavey said.

(Column continues below)

Request denied.

"They could have walked across the street to the police station to get a flag in half an hour, and I know personally that Morgan State University has a flag somewhere," Cavey said. "I thought it was absolutely inappropriate that the 'All-American Presidential Debate' couldn't even produce an American flag."

The Baltimore Sun's Laura Vozella reported:

"The buzz among some Republicans was that organizers thought the flag might offend some members of the audience."

Compounding this U.S. flag-banning at this Baltimore university was the reaction of presidential press secretary Dana Perino at the White House daily press briefing when I asked her on Friday:

Q: The Baltimore Sun, among other media, reported that when Republican presidential candidates appeared at Maryland's Morgan State University, that university refused to display the United States flag, despite a protest from Congressman Duncan Hunter. And my question: Since the president is head of the Republican Party, what was his reaction to this Morgan State U.S. flag-banning, which was nationally televised by PBS?

MS. PERINO: I don't know, I haven't talked to him about it. But, obviously, he would have liked to see more participation at the debate from the Republicans.

Q: Well, he believes that they should have the United States flag above that presidential debate, doesn't he?

MS. PERINO: I think that a university or a college can make their own decisions about that.

Q: But doesn't the president believe the flag should –

MS. PERINO: The president loves the flag.

Kelly. (Laughter.)

Q: He loves the flag. I want to know does he believe the flag should have been displayed there, or not, as Congressman Duncan Hunter –

MS. PERINO: I think it's a decision that's up to the college.

Ladies and gentlemen, think about that.

The president of the United States' press secretary said, "It's up to the college" if they want to ban the flag of the United States from a debate featuring candidates for the presidency of the United States.

I wonder what Francis Scott Key would have thought of this.